nep-ipr New Economics Papers
on Intellectual Property Rights
Issue of 2012‒03‒08
five papers chosen by
Roland Kirstein
Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg

  1. In the shadow of giants By Jing-Yuan, Chiou
  2. Why Don't Women Patent? By Jennifer Hunt; Jean-Philippe Garant; Hannah Herman; David J. Munroe
  3. Parallel trade and its impact on incentives to invest in product quality By Giorgio Matteucci; Pierfrancesco Reverberi
  4. Regional Appropriation of University-Based Knowledge and Technology for Economic Development By Audretsch, David B.; Leyden, Dennis P.; Link, Albert N.
  5. An Economic Analysis of the Regulation of Pharmaceutical Markets. By [no author]

  1. By: Jing-Yuan, Chiou
    Abstract: Intellectual giants provide broad shoulders for subsequent inventors. Their unfinished inquiry, however, also casts shadow on the prospect of future research. This paper incorporates this shadow effect into a two-stage innovation process and shows that patenting the first-stage result (the basic invention) may enhance the second-stage innovation. It is optimal to reject patent protection to the basic invention only when this beneficial effect does not arise, and when it is essential to preserve the pioneering inventor's incentive to continue research activities.
    Keywords: Cumulative Innovation; Patentable Subject Matter; Probabilistic Patents; Search; Shadow Effect
    JEL: O34 O31 K39
    Date: 2012–02
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:37033&r=ipr
  2. By: Jennifer Hunt; Jean-Philippe Garant; Hannah Herman; David J. Munroe
    Abstract: We investigate women's underrepresentation among holders of commercialized patents: only 5.5% of holders of such patents are female. Using the National Survey of College Graduates 2003, we find only 7% of the gap is accounted for by women's lower probability of holding any science or engineering degree, because women with such a degree are scarcely more likely to patent than women without. Differences among those without a science or engineering degree account for 15%, while 78% is accounted for by differences among those with a science or engineering degree. For the latter group, we find that women's underrepresentation in engineering and in jobs involving development and design explain much of the gap; closing it would increase U.S. GDP per capita by 2.7%.
    JEL: J7 O31
    Date: 2012–03
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:17888&r=ipr
  3. By: Giorgio Matteucci (Dipartimento di Informatica e Sistemistica "Antonio Ruberti" Sapienza, Universita' di Roma); Pierfrancesco Reverberi (Dipartimento di Informatica e Sistemistica "Antonio Ruberti" Sapienza, Universita' di Roma)
    Abstract: It is widely argued that international arbitrage, or parallel trade (PT), trades off static against dynamic efficiency so that, compared with a national exhaustion regime of intellectual property rights, worldwide consumer surplus rises at the expense of R&D investment. We show that this common wisdom is rather the exception than the rule. Indeed, quality investment often rises under international exhaustion, since it strengthens vertical differentiation between the original product and parallel imports. In this case, there is no trade-off at all, so that encouraging PT improves welfare, or the reverse trade-off occurs where investment increases and consumer surplus declines, while PT has ambiguous welfare effects. We find that, when allowed to use dual pricing, the R&D firm artificially restores national exhaustion. We also find that the expected trade-off never occurs under non-linear pricing and when the foreign country is regulated, although in such cases welfare rises when PT is banned.
    Keywords: Parallel trade; Intellectual Property Rights; R&D investment; Vertical contract; Regulation
    JEL: L12 L43 F15 O34
    Date: 2011–05
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aeg:wpaper:2011-5&r=ipr
  4. By: Audretsch, David B. (Indiana University); Leyden, Dennis P. (University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Department of Economics); Link, Albert N. (University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Department of Economics)
    Abstract: Economic development practitioners and scholars recognize the link between universities and regional economic development. It is predicated on the spillover of knowledge from universities to commercialization. The literature has focused on the supply side, which involves university research and technology transfer mechanisms. We examine the role played by the demand for university-based knowledge and university-developed technology. We identify links between businesses and the university as a key conduit facilitating the spillover of knowledge using data on the Department of Energy’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. We provide supply-side evidence on university research relationships and how the use of knowledge and technologies that flow from a university impact economic growth. We identify the role that SBIR-funded businesses play in the spillover of knowledge from the creating organization to where that knowledge is used and commercialized. Our results suggest that knowledge is systematically transmitted through university-related research.
    Keywords: Economic development; Entrepreneurship; Innovation; Licensing; SBIR program; University research
    JEL: L26 O31 O34
    Date: 2012–02–23
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:uncgec:2012_003&r=ipr
  5. By: [no author]
    Abstract: Regulation in pharmaceutical markets is pervasive in most countries, especially in Europe. The nature of existing regulations is diverse, as they serve a number of purposes: guaranteeing safety, efficacy and security of drug usage; but also ensuring patients access to treatment, preserving affordability and fostering pharmaceutical innovation. A number of regulatory interventions are purposely designed to bring about more efficient pharmaceutical markets. These interventions are ultimately intended to increase welfare for patients today and patients tomorrow. Welfare today requires ensuring patients access to existing pharmacological treatment at an affordable cost. Welfare tomorrow requires ensuring a continued effort on research and development to produce pharmaceutical innovations that respond to currently unmet medical needs. The chapters of this thesis focus on a number of regulatory interventions that attract notable attention due to their effect on access, affordability and innovation. These include the regulation of pharmaceutical parallel trade, direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs and off-patent pharmaceutical markets. By assessing the impact of public interventions on market outcomes and patients welfare, this thesis aims at contributing to the debate about optimal regulation of pharmaceutical markets.
    Date: 2012
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ner:euiflo:urn:hdl:1814/20696&r=ipr

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